Walter F. Conner

Walter F. Conner was born in November 1947 in Brooklyn, New York. His family was very patriotic and included a number of veterans. Conner’s father served in the World War II Army Air Forces as a crew chief in England. His Uncle Joe, a Marine Corps veteran, told him, “If you’re going to go to war, you should join the Marine Corps” because it was the best service and had the best combat training. Conner went to Rutgers University and enrolled in ROTC in 1967, but withdrew in his sophomore year to follow his uncle’s suggestion to join the Marine Corps.

After enlisting, Conner was sent to boot camp in Parris Island, South Carolina. Uncle Joe told him three things to remember in order to survive Parris Island: “Keep your mouth shut, eyes straight ahead, and never, ever laugh.”  He said that the hardest part of training at Parris Island was being told what to do, “24/7,” and added that, “If you’re not obedient, you’ll wash out”. Boot camp had a motivation platoon for challenged recruits; one had been in jail, and was not motivated, but after two weeks in the motivation platoon, he came back motivated. Conner made a lot of friends in boot camp, and one contacted him a few years ago on Facebook.

After boot camp, Conner was in a “casual hold” unit, where he had to sit in front of a Board, answer questions, and see if he was mentally qualified for Officer Candidate School. He ended up being #1 not only in his platoon at Parris Island, but also in his OCS class, out of two hundred candidates! Conner’s advantage over others in OCS was that he knew customs, courtesies, uniforms, and regulations.

OCS was like boot camp in that it was physical, but the goal was to find out if you could lead rather than follow. The main lesson Conner learned was “if you can’t be responsible for yourself, you can’t be responsible for a platoon.” OCS was both physical and mental, and there was a lot of running. After OCS, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and assigned to Officer Basic School, where he did six months of training in 1968 to 1969. His instructors were Vietnam veterans, who talked about the reality of the war as opposed to the official view.

Even though he wanted to be an infantry platoon commander, Conner took a test for flight school, because it got him out of a half day of physical training. He thought he had failed the test, so was surprised when his orders came in to attend flight school.  Conner chose the Army Flight School, which was strictly helicopters. He spent four months in Texas, and four months in Georgia, to get his Army wings.

In order to earn Navy wings, Conner was assigned to a Marine unit in California. For a pilot, comfort comes after three hundred hours of flying. Helicopters are difficult to fly because there are a lot of moving parts, as well as unexpected things can happen. A pre-flight check was required by pilots, a safety officer was assigned to every flight squadron, and an officer evaluated pilots in aircraft tests every year. Beacons and radar were used instead of celestial navigation or GPS, but in the jungles and mountains of a place like Vietnam, you were flying “by the seat of your pants” and had survival maps in your pocket.

In November 1969, Conner went to Vietnam, flying out of California to the Okinawa Replacement Squadron, and then to Da Nang Air Force Base, where he was assigned to Marble Mountain, a small Marine helicopter base along the South China Sea. On one occasion, he flew over a Vietnamese Army unit and was fired at, causing him to never fully believe they were on our side. Conner also worked with South Korean Marines, fondly recalling that, “They are warriors, very strict…they have extreme discipline. The enemy feared them more than they feared us. The enemy would stay away if we had a Korean unit with us.”

Conner never engaged with the local population. He only ate American food that was cooked on base, as well as lived in an air-conditioned hooch. Despite initial inaccurate rocket attacks, living conditions on the base were good. On a typical flight, Conner would be briefed before dawn, eat a good breakfast, and usually fly two hours on multiple missions. He flew General Keith McCutcheon, then deputy commandant of the Marine Corps’ Air Wing, on an inspection tour. The strangest mission Conner ever flew was transporting Vietnamese police investigating a theft from the PX. There was a shootout, and the bandit escaped.

Conner was assigned to the 3^rd Battalion 7^th Marine Regiment for one hundred days. On one occasion, a “Chieu Hoi,” an enemy combatant who had defected to the side of the government and agreed to cooperate with the Americans, aided the Marines on a mission into caves and mountains. They found a hospital in one of the caves, and tear gas was used in others. The Marine battalion commander did not want Conner to go in the jungle with him, as he was a valuable resource for guiding high altitude jet planes in at close range, using a beacon rather than radio.

Routine missions could be hazardous. On one occasion, Conner was shot down; he received a Purple Heart after being injured when his chopper hit a mountain. On another occasion, his engine was hit by a bullet which killed it, and the aircraft rolled down a mountainside. He considered it a miracle that the helicopter did not explode. “You could hear the enemy,” fighting the team he had landed. One at a time, Conner and his fellow Marines were pulled out of the jungle by a helicopter while under enemy fire. Like any service, Marines do not leave anyone behind. On November 2, 1970, Conner returned to the United States.

After his discharge, Conner used his GI Bill benefits to return to Rutgers, where he earned BA and MA degrees, and then became a high school history teacher. He served in the Marine Corps Reserves in a unit stationed in Willow Grove Naval Air Station in Pennsylvania, until he retired as a colonel in 1998. Conner was activated during Desert Shield/Storm in 1991 for three months.

During his reserve time, Conner, a former school athlete, got involved in NATO games as a military pentathlete. He ran track in college and was in great shape; plus, he knew how to shoot weapons. Conner tried out in Fort Meade, Maryland and made the team, which consisted of eighteen men. He stayed a member until 1981.

Conner also joined the New Jersey Naval Militia, a volunteer state paramilitary organization. At the time of his interview, he served in the role of Commanding Officer. The State Naval Militia has been dormant; yet, following 9/11/2001, it provided a valuable service of shuttling people back and forth from the Twin Towers to Liberty Island. Conner began his Naval Militia service as an “open source” intelligence officer. He had access to a lot of intelligence information, but without a secret clearance; he got to meet a lot of intelligence people from the Port Authority and the CIA. Conner served on several Port Authority, Port of New York, Port of Philadelphia, and New Jersey Homeland Security Commissions. From 2003-2005, he ran a private company, doing security seminars and symposiums.

Conner believed we are safer today because more heads of agencies are talking to each other than before 9/11. The best thing that came out of Homeland Security, according to him, was communication between agencies, as well as awareness of potential danger. He has done a lot with bullying, peer mentoring, and pushing for students to talk. Conner is retired from his teaching job, has eight children and ten grandchildren.

During his service, Colonel Walter F. Conner earned the Purple Heart, the Air Medal, the Service Commendation Medal, the Gold Star Navy Achievement Medal, the National Defense Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, and the Vietnam Campaign Medal.

Additional Resource:

• Farewell to our original Pirate: Mr. Conner retires